The Beauty Industry & Our Girls

Girls don’t have it easy these days. We’re constantly being put under pressure from our peers, the media and ourselves to look our best. All the time…. From 7 year old girls to 27 year old girls, when they say they don’t care what they look like, part of them is lying. And if you tell them that they’re lying and they deny it? They’re still lying. My eyes have always been pretty big. Buying sunglasses has always been an issue for me. When I was in the 7th grade I read an article about “embracing your big eyes” in 17 magazine or something. So I did what any other 14 year old girl would do. I went through my mom’s makeup bag and stole her eyeliner. From that day on until now, I’ve worn eyeliner on my lower lids almost every day. You’d think “eyeliner would just attract more attention and make your eyes even bigger”, which I agree is very true. But I was told that without eyeliner I look like a 10 year old. Now tell that to an 18 year old girl and see if you can get a nice reaction from her.

So what has caused this phenomenon of girls wanting to be someone that they’re not? Even if it’s just on the outside? Well it’s incredibly hard to name an industry that hasn’t played a part in this transformation of the modern day young woman. But the beauty industry is at fault for this ultimately. Constantly making products that no one actually needs, but hey if you wear this, boys (or girls) might like you more.

I hope to uncover the truth behind the beauty industry and why it does what it does. The obvious answer would be for the money, but what about the brains behind it all? What is wrong in their dna or chemical makeup to think it’s okay to tell little girls to change themselves? The effects of the beauty industry can be absolutely detrimental to a woman, no matter her age, class, race or religion.

Sources like the Dove campaign on embracing your beauty will be important for my research, but also hard data like Ann Britton’s UNH thesis paper entitled “The Beauty Industry’s Influence on Women in Society”. Thanks to the vast world of the internet, thousands of youtuber’s have taken to the screen to give their 2 cents which will help cultivate my claims. It’s one thing for a young girl to want to play dress up and be silly, but it’s another for a girl to feel ugly because society tells her so.Where is the line crossed? When does the beauty industry go from helping girl’s self esteem to ruining it? By wearing makeup and buying into the industry, am I being hypocritical and furthering the issue?